


Broken Lights

by littlegreencloak



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Apartment Building, AruAni, Aruani SS Gift, Aruani Secret Santa, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Intros, Drabble, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, college kids, shortfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 12:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2850437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlegreencloak/pseuds/littlegreencloak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Annie's oven breaks down in her less-than-livable apartment, she finds an unexpected and awkward conversation to be one of the best surprises she's ever met.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Lights

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for unexpectedchibi on Tumblr for the Aruani Secret Santa Exchange. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and enjoy this fluffy nonsense!

"Damn," she grunted, kicking at her stove for the thousandth time. She could've sworn it was cooking that crappy store-bought pizza just fine - green flashing numbers flicking nervously on the screen, red numbers glaring a solid 350 degrees.

And then, in an instant, it all shut off.

What happened? Did a power cord cut loose? Did she turn it off by accident? She was pretty much positive that that wasn't the case though - she did have a sharp memory, after all, retaining all the bugs and circuits in her apartment to heart, even through the busyness of randomly-planned tae kwon do sessions. But, despite all the perfect details she could recall - everything just shut off right in front of her.

No matter how hard she kicked the appliance, angrily punched at the buttons, or searched through every corner inside the oven, down to the tiniest cracks on the grill - nothing seemed to work. Was there a power cut? But then why were all the other lights in this enclosed space still working perfectly as usual?

And all but to make things worse, a painful screeching sound pierced violently through to her eardrums - the fire alarm. Oh, so you just decide to go off now? Nothing's even burning in here - the oven's busted, the pizza's cold, wait...the pizza. She had opened the oven door too wide, and in a split second, the pizza crust was burnt to a crisp. That smell of burning soured her insides as she snatched a hand towel, shaking it violently before that damn brainless alarm.

But how the hell could it burn, she thought. Well, anyways, I guess the oven's dead and the pizza's trash, so what's the point. In leaving her apartment, she clicked the elevator button to the "down" level. It was weird, riding the elevator at 6 pm, especially since the building was dead quiet after rush hour. Everyone was in their rooms, clinking spoons against pans as they slowly prepared a quiet dinner for themselves.

Oddly enough, she was the only one heading downstairs to the cafeteria. She'd thought that all the ovens in the building must be busted - nope, stupidly enough, it was only hers. Just her luck, she could forget about saving her last five bucks for a regular midnight stop to the convenience store - sleeping was hard enough without a small breath of fresh air and a calming bag of chips.

She grabbed a roll and poured gag-inducing water into a plastic cup before she reached the overly-optimistic blond kid behind the soup counter, who obviously looked like he didn't get out much. Then again, neither did she.

"Hey there miss, looks like I haven't seen you around before! Did you just move in?" the boy smiled, blue eyes sparkling behind tired heating lights.

"Nah, I've been around here for three years," she said flatly in response. "Could you just hand me some damn food, for god's sake?"

"Huh, strange. Never seen you around here before," he replied, clearly trying hard to keep his smile after such a harsh request. "What would you like? We've got a French Onion special today! Or would you maybe be interested -"

"No thanks," the girl interrupted. "I'll take the French Onion." "Oh, um, okay...sure," the boy nodded, handing her a weak styrofoam board of soup and up to the register.

Ten minutes later, and she was still ripping her teeth through her soft, fluffy bread, taking slow sips of her water as she let the untouched steam of her soup rise to her cheeks. She turned to see the blond rip off his apron behind the counter, placing it neatly onto a hook. Oh god, please don't come over here, you smiling idiot, please don't - surely enough, he uninvitedly grabbed the seat next to her.

"Hey, I, um...just thought that it was strange that you've been living here as long as I have, and I've never seen you around here before! I guess better late than never to know your neighbors, right?" he chuckled softly, shifting the air into an uncomfortable silence - she was clearly uninterested. "I'm Armin," he announced awkwardly. "You?"

"Annie," she answered, realizing the kid wasn't planning on leaving too soon - maybe just talk it off till he finally leaves, she thought. Hopefully soon - she didn't care to talk to any of the brainwashed jerks around here, and this guy was just another one of them.

"So...Annie," he asked, "why're down here? I didn't think anyone would come here to eat." "My oven's busted," Annie muttered, slurping through thick layers of cheese and soup. "Oh. Is everyone else out? I mean, I just came home from my class, but the front lobby's still -" "No, idiot," she sighed, "just mine is down."

"Oh, okay, sorry, I didn't...," Armin paused. He clearly wasn't going anywhere with is whole "light introduction" thing, so what's the point? He was never all that confident talking with people, anyway. But no, it'd be too weird if he just randomly left now, but he just had to. What was he doing wrong? What was he saying wrong?

"So...what brought you here? School? Job? Family?" Armin asked.  
"Can I ask you why you're still here?" she hissed through her teeth. "Can't I just finish dealing with all this stuff when I also have to start dealing with you?"  
"I'm - I'm really sorry, Annie," the boy apologized, words spilling out in uneven shaky breaths. "I just thought...maybe I could....find someone to talk to in this lonely place," he sighed.

"What?" Annie shot up.  
"I don't know...it seems like no one here wants to talk to me. I'm a just a stupid little college kid, so what's the point?" he added.  
"And no wonder your oven broke down...my lights flicker all the time back at my place. Too bad it was the cheapest place I could find," he muttered.

"You know, they only rent out the cheap floors to the college kids," Annie replied. "Just so they can give us the crappy rooms while all the older people can sit pretty as they roll out more more cash into the front desk's pocket," she added, "plus, college kids are always rolling out of bed hungover. Too much to care for."

"Funny, I don't drink," Armin laughed, "Actually, I had the taste of alcohol. Too strong for me." "Yeah," Annie agreed, wearing a thin smile, "me too."

"Say, where do you live? Maybe we could study together, you know...before finals?" the ocean-eyed boy suggested.

Annie, sleek green eyes struggling to look back up in response, asked: "why should I tell you? I mean, we just met, y'know...what if you decide to stalk me?"

Through a glowing grin, he chuckled, "don't worry Annie, I'm not a stalking kind of person," he paused. "Here," he smiled, writing out the numbers 1712 onto a slip of paper and diligently handing it to her. "Come by anytime. I don't get any visitors other than my friends anyway, so it'll be nice to talk to at least somebody in my building," he said, heading up and slinging on the backpack behind him. "Gotta run up on my essay, it was nice talking to you!" he waved back, heading through to the elevator. "See you soon, Annie!"

"Yeah," she whispered, a small smile peering over her face. 1712, she remembered - just a few doors down from me. 1716. Four doors down from the only person wasn't a stuffy businessman who pretended to like this place. Four doors down from the only person who'd actually agreed and smiled with her in three years - no, longer than that - much longer than that.

Yeah, she thought. See you soon.


End file.
